This invention relates to toilet seats and in particular to hinges for toilet seats. A toilet seat is ordinarily equipped with two hinges each having a base portion for attachment to the porcelain bowl, a seat leaf for attachment to the ring seat, and a lid leaf for attachment to the lid. The seat and lid leaves are pivotal in the base portion of the hinge. Each of two bolts, one for each hinge, passes down through a vertical bolt hole in the porcelain bowl and projects therefrom for a sufficient length to receive a nut which is finger tightened, rather than wrench tightened, to avoid cracking the porcelain bowl. In the manner just briefly described, the toilet seat is secured to the porcelain bowl.
While porcelain toilet bowls are manufactured to standard sizes, the specifications and the manufacturing are not sufficiently accurate to assure that the two bolt holes in different porcelain bowls are spaced apart by precisely the same distance. Accordingly, it is customary for the bolt holes in the porcelain bowl to be made substantially larger in diameter than the bolts which are to be passed therethrough. In this manner, allowance is made for differences in the spacing between the bolt holes. Thus, while the installer of a new or different toilet seat onto a bowl will usually find that the bolt holes in the bowl are sufficiently properly spaced to receive the bolts of the new toilet seat, the bolts of the new toilet seat will not always be centered in the bolt holes of the bowl. As a result, when the nuts are fingered tightened on the bolt of the toilet seat, the nut will abut against the under surface of the bowl, but since the bolts have room to move around in the bolt holes of the bowl, there is a tendency for the rear end of the toilet seat to move at least to some extent. This is obviously less satisfactory than a toilet seat that is firmly secured at its rearward end.